


Alphabet Soup

by Ash0605



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Birthday, Curry, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, First Dates, Fluff, Half AriRinko fic, Half Arisa's grandma appreciation, Tags Are Hard, alphabet soup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:07:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27235504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ash0605/pseuds/Ash0605
Summary: Rinko and Arisa's first date takes the form of a casual dinner at Arisa's house. However, they certainly weren't expecting a fully laid and decorated table, a large portion of curry and 10 bowls of alphabet soup. Just what was Arisa's grandmother planning?Happy Birthday Arisa!
Relationships: Ichigaya Arisa/Shirokane Rinko
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Alphabet Soup

The emptiness of the kitchen wasn’t what threw Arisa off when she entered the room. Her grandmother always retreated to the living room when she had friends over. What was off was the ornate decoration of the dining table. Was the modest wooden table she had grown up eating her food on even underneath the pretty tablecloth, careful arrangement of cutlery and the triple-pronged candelabra? It was all so perfectly arranged Arisa didn’t even want to touch it for fear of ruining it. The entire table resembled what one would see at a high-class restaurant, and for that reason it clashed with the traditional and austere kitchen surrounding it.

Then Arisa noticed the food. A modest and delicious looking curry resting in a bed of brown rice sat at one end of the table. At the other end rested ten sealed bowls of… something?

Soft footsteps behind Arisa indicated that the girl that was following her had now caught up and was looking at the same view she was. “Ah… This looks surprisingly sophisticated. I wasn’t expecting you to go this far, Arisa-san.” Rinko commented meekly. The two girls, both wearing casual blouses and skirts of differing lengths, stuck out in the same way that the rest of the room did.

“I wasn’t expecting this either!” Arisa defended hurriedly, taking a step back as she turned to face Rinko. “I was planning for something… less formal. I’m sorry if this seems really daunting now!”

“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t your fault. Besides… I feel… more comfortable with it since it’s just us.” Rinko reassured, in a gesture that both put Arisa at ease and made her heart jump. “Have you seen the food?” she continued.

“Yeah I have. I’m not really sure what’s in all of the bowls.” Arisa walked over to where the bowls lay, hoping that it would give her some kind of clue. Unfortunately, the ceramic bowls and metal lids were completely opaque, and there was nothing around them clueing Arisa into their contents.

Arisa’s hand hovered over the handle of the closest bowl to her as she pondered who could have done this, and why. It certainly seemed like a Kasumi thing to do; all of this reminded her of the time Kasumi stuck glow in the dark stars all over the room a few months prior. Yet, as far as Arisa knew, Kasumi had not paid a visit to her house today. Even then, the other members of Poppin’Party had confessed afterwards that they had all contributed to sticking stars on the walls of her room. Such cooperation didn’t make sense either, since Poppin’Party didn’t have practice at all today. In fact, their group chat, usually alight with emojis, memes and funny images, had been completely empty all day, which was a fact Arisa might have paid more attention to had she not been worrying about tonight.

With an internal sigh, Arisa concluded that the culprit must be her grandmother. She loved her grandmother to death, but of all the times she could have decided to do something unpredictable, she chose Arisa’s first date with the senior she had been crushing on for months.

The handle of the lid felt moderately warm when Arisa’s hand grasped it, indicating that the substance contained inside was hot. She lifted the lid away, tilting her head in confusion as she looked at what appeared to be red sauce. The sauce was indeed warm, and Arisa felt that warmth brush past her face as steam rose up from its surface. After closer inspection she realized that it was pasta in tomato sauce, though instead of the familiar shapes of spaghetti, penne or ravioli there was a collection of letters instead.

A collection of letters that were organized into words, which read:

_You can do it Arisa! This is the moment you’ve been waiting for!_

Arisa’s face bloomed bright red as she slammed the lid shut. She covered her cheeks with her hands, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

‘ _Yeah this is definitely grandma,_ ’ Arisa concluded internally. A part of her definitely felt happy and encouraged, but this was offset by the embarrassment setting her face on fire.

She quickly moved to the next bowl, hoping that the bowl she had seen was an outlier. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, and Arisa opened the lid to another arrangement of letters that read:

_I know how much Rinko-senpai makes your heart pound! Go get her Arisa!_

After slamming the lid shut, Arisa didn’t take any time to ponder. Her hands moved to every bowl systematically, lifting the lid off and reading the words underneath. If she was going to get embarrassed she might as well do it to herself all at once! Every bowl contained a set of words floating in tomato sauce, which included:

_You can do it Arisa! You’ve got to get that bread, just like we do at the bakery!_

_Do your best Arisa! You’ve gotta be more honest, or at least more honest than you are with us._

_I wish you the best, Ichigaya-san. I’m glad you two are finally doing something together._

_Good luck Arisa! Remember, you can’t just do small talk! Find something that you both have in common to talk about!_

_You can do it Ichigaya-san! Rinko-senpai isn’t one of the dummies you have to deal with. This will be a piece of cake for you._

“ _Your pining for her was so obvious that Kasumi could figure it out._ ”

Arisa froze, and although her mouth dropped open no sound came out. The only sound she could comprehend was the furious thundering in her chest. It took her a few seconds to realize that those words were spoken aloud.

“Arisa-san, are all the bowls like this? With words inside?”

Arisa muttered what she intended to be a yes, but instead came out as a jumble of barely audible noises. Rinko confirmed it for herself after a few seconds by lifting up another lid.

“ _You and Rinko-senpai are the perfect fit. Go get her Arisa!_ ” she continued. “Oh gosh! This is really sweet! Did your grandmother do this for you?”

“I think… I think she did?” Arisa stammered.

“Wow that’s super cute…!” Rinko smiled. She gasped shortly after as she checked herself. “Actually… I probably shouldn’t say that… considering how embarrassed you look… I’m sorry…”

“No Rinko-senpai, don’t worry about it! Personally… I’m… more worried about how this all makes you feel.”

“It actually makes me feel really happy…! Its encouraging seeing your grandmother support you to such an extent.”

“You… really think so?” Arisa felt courage surge through her body again; enough to convince her to check the message under the only unopened lid.

_If your mother and father were here, they would be so proud of your right now._

“Actually, now that the embarrassments going away, I’m definitely feel that support now.” Arisa remarked happily. She could have started crying right there and then, but that could happen later.

For the moment, Arisa had a very important mission. Or rather, a very important person.

“I’m glad…! Though what do we do about the food now?”

“Honestly, I feel impolite even thinking about that.” Arisa replied, her tone giddy with excitement.

“No I don’t think its impoliteness! The nutritional content between the curry and all of the soup won’t be the same…” Rinko’s voice trailed off, and after a few seconds in thought a smile formed on her lips. “Actually I have an idea… Why don’t… Why don’t we share the curry…?”

“S…Share the curry?!” Arisa exclaimed. “Haha! I mean… sure! I don’t see why not!”

Arisa moved her chair next to Rinko’s, after which the pair took their seats for the first time that night. The three prongs of the candelabra blazed in front of them, the bright light accentuating the soft features of Rinko’s face. Perhaps it was just Arisa’s imagination or a trick of the light, but the portion of curry resting in front of them seemed larger than usual.

“Thank you for the food…”

“T…Thank you for the food!”

Before Arisa could reach for a spoon, Rinko had already pulled both of them towards her, leaving Arisa with no choice but to watch Rinko place a spoonful of curry and rice onto one of the spoons.

“Open wide… and say ‘ahh’,” Rinko requested, extending the spoon towards Arisa.

“R-Rinko-senpai?! I mean… urm… ahh!” Arisa closed her eyes.

Arisa almost choked on the curry in her mouth after she opened her eyes again. She had front row seats to Rinko’s soft, delicate features, her warm smile and her vivid violet eyes. How could she be expected to experience the complex flavors of the curry and her overwhelming feelings for the girl in front of her at the same time?

Eventually, Arisa remembered how to swallow. “You have to let me feed you too Rinko-senpai! This curry is too good for you to just feed me all of it!”

“I suppose that makes sense…” Rinko relented, passing the spare spoon over to the Arisa.

Arisa quickly shoveled a spoonful of curry and rice onto her spoon and extended it towards Rinko. With a pleasant ‘Ahh!’ Rinko took the spoonful into her mouth, and her entire body straightened up in reaction to the strong spices.

Rinko placed her spare hand onto her cheek. “Gosh that has quite a kick!”

“It really does! Is it too spicy for you, or can you manage it?”

“Don’t worry, I can manage this. We need to eat this together, after all…”

“Yeah… right…” Arisa braced herself mentally for another mouthful.

\----------

By the time the pair had cleaned the plate, the curry had cooled considerably. After taking in and savoring the final spoonful, Arisa leaned back and sighed contentedly. “Man that was good! Grandma always makes the best curry!”

“She really does…!” Rinko agreed happily. She then turned around to look at the small windows behind the pair, straightening up in shock when she saw how pitch black it was outside. “Gosh… its really dark outside!”

“It really is…!” Arisa noted, turning around to check for herself. “What do you think we should do? The city isn’t going to be safe at this time of night.”

“This… might be too much trouble… but would it be possible if I stayed the night?” Rinko asked bashfully, rubbing her palms together.

“I wouldn’t mind! But I’m not sure if-“

“It would be a pleasure for you to stay the night Shirokane-san!”

The pair bolted upright in reaction to the amicable voice behind them. A venerable old lady with wispy white hair was standing in the doorway from the kitchen to the living room.

“A…Are you sure Ichigaya-san?”

“Its absolutely fine! I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you this late at night! Besides, I’m certain Arisa would be overjoyed to have you stay over.”

“G…Grandma?!” Arisa was close to tipping off her chair, wondering how deep her grandmother’s machinations went.

“Thank you so much!” Rinko relaxed and returned to face Arisa. “Shall we go back to your room?”

“S…Sure! Let’s do that!” Arisa agreed.

The pair rose from their seats, making their way out of the kitchen and towards the basement. Rinko led Arisa this time, and while Arisa followed behind closely behind she stopped in the doorway and turned her head to face her grandmother before she left. She flashed her a smile and a thumbs up, hoping that it was enough to communicate her thanks.

If her grandmothers warm smile was anything to go off, she had good reason to believe it was.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Arisa! ~~thank god the october birthdays are finally over~~
> 
> I was torn between three pairs for today; KasuAri, AriRan and AriRinko. My indecisiveness, a lack of concrete ideas for most of the day and a week where my university lecturers all decided to host their stuff in the first half of the week made writing for Arisa's and Yukina's birthdays quite difficult, so I'm glad that its finally over. I definitely still want to try AriRan in the future, just maybe when my seminars and Bandori's birthdays aren't conspiring to overcomplicate my life. (Though the last minute way I work causes just as many problems oof)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! If you have any comments or feedback feel free to leave them here! If you want to reach out on twitter feel free to do so at @ash060500
> 
> I hope you have a good rest of your day and I wish you the best in staying safe!


End file.
